Trump to Speak to Detroit Economic Club Monday

DETROIT, MI — Controversial Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will make a major economic speech in Detroit Monday as he courts voters in Rust Belt states that are important to both his and Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaigns for the White House.

Trump handily won the Michigan primary in March, but the members of the Detroit Economic Club is a more formidable audience, made up of business leaders who backed other candidates in the primary.

And there could be some tense moments with the the Detroit Economic Club’s chairman, Ford Motor Co. scion William Clay Ford Jr., with whom he tangled after singling out the Dearborn-based automaker with threats to impose tariffs up to 40 percent on car parts produced in Mexico.

Ford fired back, saying the company his great-grandfather founded in 1903 to mass produce the nation’s first automobiles is “about as American as you can get” and said Trump’s attacks point to “a new low” in political discourse.

The billionaire real estate tycoon’s speech at the Renaissance Center comes after a particularly disastrous week, both with party leaders and Republicans in Congress, who are calling him out for his ongoing feud with the parents of a Muslim Army captain who joined the military to fight terrorists and was killed in Baquabah, Iraq, after suicide bombers drove into the gate of his compound in 2004.

In the last 48 hours, Trump continued his war of words with the Gold Star family, declared that he'd “always wanted” a Purple Heart but that it's “easier” to receive one as a gift, and declined to endorse Republican candidate including House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Trump hasn’t been in Michigan since a two-day swing through the state for a memorable March 3 debate at Fox Theatre, when he boasted about his penis size after Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida ribbed him about the size of his hands.

Monday’s address is closed to the public, but open to members of the Detroit Economic Club, which has heard speeches from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Rubio.

Image credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr / Creative Commons